20 Nintendo Games You Must Play Before You Die

Few companies can claim to have defined quite as many childhoods as Nintendo, the firm that put home consoles on the map and created some of the most cherished and enduring video game characters of all time.

The Big N has come a long way since it was founded as a playing card brand back in 1889. It hit the stratosphere almost a century later after breaking into consumer electronics and blazing a trail in the emerging field of interactive entertainment.

Early innovations such as the handheld Game & Watch and arcade classic Donkey Kong were followed by creations that changed both hardware and software as we know it. The Game Boy, NES and Super Nintendo defined their generations and the characters these machines introduced to the world remain gaming icons to this day.

Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong and the rest of Nintendo's colourful crew have single-handedly reshaped genres over the years, clinging onto popularity after the N64 took them into 3D territory and remaining influential into the Switch era.

Even when Ninty has struggled to compete with Sony and Microsoft on the hardware front, the developer's ability to churn out world-class games that everyone should experience at least once has never diminished.

After dreaming up the template for the quintessential side-scrolling platformer with the original Super Mario Bros in 1986, Nintendo perfected it when it released Super Mario Bros 3 on the NES several years later.

The company mascot's third adventure was bigger and better than its predecessors in virtually every respect. Its visuals were more colourful with a level of detail that pushed the 8-bit hardware to its limits, and many of the new features it introduced became staples of the series for generations to come.

The overworld map, the Koopalings and power-ups that grant Mario and Luigi flight capabilities made their debuts right here.

Like most core Mario games, this winning sequel hit that sweet spot between accessibility, playability and challenge; qualities which made it impossible to put down.

Super Mario Bros 3 is, in many ways, the definitive side-scrolling platformer, and although there have been countless attempts to replicate its magic over the years, the only ones that have succeeded came from Nintendo itself.